Chicken Keleguen

Chicken Keleguen

Chicken Keleguen can be a main dish, often served with rice. It is always served cold and is the creation of the Chamorro people of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific. Originally the dish mixed diced, cooked chicken, fresh shredded coconut, lemon juice and finely diced very hot red peppers. The following recipe is one of several and my favorite. It is  based on a family recipe from Guam.

2 lbs. or four cups of diced chicken. The chicken can be fresh or leftover BBQ or roasted chicken.

2 TBS of Soy sauce

2 TBS of rice vinegar

2 bundles of green onions - well washed and finely chopped.

1 cup of thick unsweetened coconut milk - shake can well

4 level teaspoons of ground ginger paste

1/2 cup of lemon or lime juice

1 teaspoon pepper and 2 teaspoons of salt

1 cup of fresh mild salsa - any prefer the hot salsa

 A. Left-over cooked and seasoned chicken.

If chicken you are using leftover chicken already seasoned and cooked, dice into small half inch pieces.

 B. Uncooked and unseasoned chicken.

When using uncooked chicken breasts cut the chicken into 1 inch squares and marinate for at least an hour; 24 hours would be better. I use Outback Al's Sauce as the marinade. A marinade of even parts of Soy, rice vinegar, and lemon juice is common. Dice the chicken into one inch pieces, brown in a frying pan with four tablespoons of olive oil.

Allow the chicken to cool and dice the chicken into smaller half inch pieces.

When the chicken is cooked and diced, mix all ingredients together. Mix well until the coconut milk,  and other ingredients are well blended. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for at least an hour or preferably overnight. Mix the dish well again before serving cold.

Over the years I spent time on most of the Northern Mariana Islands, including a year on Guam. On these beautiful tropical islands, things were rarely dull. Earthquakes and typhoons are expected. In recent years earthquakes have been common with magnitudes from 5.0 to 8.7. In 1975 I experienced a modest 6.2 earthquake as I tried to keep my balance on the shaking ground with a child under each arm  while dodging the coconuts. I came to appreciate the resilience of the Guam people when Super Typhoon June hit Guam in June 1975 with sustained winds of 185 mph. At that time this was the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded.

Chicken Keleguen and a companion dish, Red Rice, was present at all christening and funeral celebrations. Civic and business communication are decisions were often carried out at these celebrations. Two of my appointments with the governor were set up to take place at christenings. The funerals were far too common particularly among middle age males. One recent scientific report states:

       Guam's indigenous Chamorro people historically had a high incidence of a neurological disease with similarities to Lou Gehrig's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Called ALS-PDC (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-Parkinsonian dementia complex), the disease's symptoms range from muscle weakness and paralysis to dementia. The rate of ALS-PDC has been as much as 100 times higher in Guam's Chamorro people than in the continental U.S. 

In the years I worked on Guam, the Island was, in many ways, a matriarchal society. With the loss of so many middle age men, the women quietly and effectively provided leadership in family, social, and business arenas. In one long term planning meeting for the island school system, I was one of three males  on the 25 person committee.

I was offered on-campus university housing, but chose to live in a small Chamorro family compound with four houses with a shared garden, chickens and several pigs. The patriarch of the family did die of ALS-PDC while I was there.